Hunger Studies

Hunger Studies

About Hunger Studies

This course will examine hunger as a complex issue of sustainable human development, including root causes and consequences of both domestic and global hunger, as well as current responses and potential solutions. More importantly, this course intends to help students develop a skill set for global citizenship that includes opportunities for advocacy, leadership, and critical thinking.

Auburn Online collaborated with Human Sciences faculty and students, as well as food security professionals and organizations to:

  • To “humanize” the content and create a personal connection with the issues
  • To provide context and create empathy for those who struggle with food security locally, domestically, and around the globe
  • To evoke action from students to help make improvements in food security

Key Features

There are a number of features that make this course more engaging.  

 

If you need a similar solution in your course, let the Auburn Online team help.

Explore

Explore the tabs below to see some sample content and interactivity from these courses.

Scenarios and Problems

Introduction to the Story

Hunger: Causes, Consequences, and Responses

This video, produced by USAID (an organization we'll learn about in a later module) gives a quick overview of one aspect of hunger and shows you one of the faces of hunger in our world. Throughout this course, you'll hear many similar tales, but you'll also learn how to help, how to find solutions, and how to join the army of hunger fighters across the globe who are committed to making hunger history.

By empowering countries to grow their way out of poverty, we can break the cycle of hunger and build a more stable world for future generations.

 

About Your Role

There is an ever-increasing number of corporations, non-profits, faith-based groups, international organizations, universities, healthcare, foundations, and individuals working to develop innovative partnerships, political commitment among our leaders, and global connections among groups striving to attain the same goal-eradicating hunger.

Throughout this course, you will need to immerse yourself into the world of hunger as a future advocate - locally or internationally.  You should view the material from the lens of someone who could possibly be involved as either a volunteer or as your potential career to end hunger worldwide.  This is why, as a part of this course, you are required to complete 20 hours of volunteer service in a hunger related organization.

 

About the Guide

Anna Kate Mullinix graduated from Auburn University in 2013 with a hunger studies minor. She now works as a community aid worker in Nicaragua where she works as the Director of Women’s Education and Community Outreach for the Emmanuel Home of Protection. She will be your guide throughout this course and you'll learn how she is applying concepts of this course in her every day life and work.

 

About the Case Files

Throughout each module, you will encounter cases of real-life people that either struggle with or against the hunger crisis around the globe. You will learn who these people are, what they have experienced, and see how their story relates to the important concepts your are learning.

Case Profile

 


A Guatemalan family

On the Profile tab of each case file, you will be provided with the individual or family basic background information.

Case Resources

The Resources tab allows you to take a deep dive into each case.  You may be provided with a chronological timeline of events, stories, additional photos, video, maps or other relevant material aimed to help you truly understand the impact of hunger on this case or this person'e impact on hunger.

Case Connections

This Connections tab will provide you with the relationship of this case back to the content you have been learning. 

You will be asked a question about how this case relates to the food insecurity framework.

Check Answer

 

About the Service Learning Experience

Description & Purpose

This project is meant for you to begin engaging with the local community as an advocate for the hungry and disadvantaged. It will also show you how you can be involved in the solution to help the hungry poor in our world.

Procedure
  1. Get involved in the local community.
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of world events and their impact on hunger in the local community.
  3. Expand classroom topics through 20 hours of service-learning
  4. Report on your experience in a 3-5 page project summary following the document design layout instructions for formatting
  5. Be prepared to discuss what you are learning through this experience
Deliverables
1. Volunteer Proposal

1-2 page proposal outlining what you want to do to complete this project. To do this, you will need to research an organization(s) in your local area that are involved with hunger and hunger-related issues.

For this paper, you need to make the argument that your work will be relevant in solving and/or learning about a hunger issue in your community and will be relevant to the content of the course.

2. Agreement of Work

1-2 page agreement of work outlining when/where you will volunteer, including a schedule of your proposed hours.

This agreement must be signed & dated by your supervisor(s) within the organization and include organizational contact information. An email from the supervisor attached to your report will also suffice.

3. Mid-Project Check-In

Turn in a schedule of when you’ve volunteered (must be signed & dated by your supervisor(s)).

As before, an email from the supervisor can take the place of an actual signature. However, the email must address both your completed hours and the plan to finish your volunteer work. You must also include a proposed plan to complete the remaining volunteer hours and final project paper.

4. Final Project Report

This report should be between 3-5 pages and must outline what you accomplished in your volunteer experience, what you’ve learned about yourself and the organization, and how this organization impacts hunger or hunger related situations in the local community.

Your report should also outline your accomplishments, frustrations, challenges, unexpected feelings about the experience, ways to improve the organization and/or the direction of future projects, how the project influenced your interpretation of the course. You may also include anecdotal stories of your experience and how this has impacted you personally. 

You must also include a final time sheet showing your hours worked and this must be signed & dated by your supervisor(s).

NOTE: EMAILS WILL NOT COUNT IN THIS INSTANCE.

 

 

Interactivity and Video

 

Hunger Timeline

The timeline below follows the story of hunger in the 20th and 21st centuries as presented in the book Enough. As you click through, be sure to read about each event so that you can clearly understand the timeline of events as well as understand how each event is related to the others.

 

 

Food Security Framework

In this video, Dr. Thornton walks you through the food security framework. This framework helps to categorize different information about vulnerable populations so that aid can properly meet the need of the community. Understanding and knowing this framework will help as you walk through the course as well as through your volunteer project. The next time you volunteer, think through what piece of the food security framework the organization is meeting as well as the struggle of the beneficiaries of that organization's aid.

 

  1. Video: Hunger Framework

 

The Intergenerational Cycle of Poverty and Hunger

Even though the intergeneration cycle of poverty and hunger can start at any stage, in most cases the cycle starts with poor nutrition in utero among women with poor nutritional status before and during pregnancy and extends throughout the life course, affecting the next generation. 

Below is an illustration of the intergenerational cycle of poverty and hunger.

Video:  Intergenerational Cycle of Hunger

Case Studies

 

“The old, wary African hand seemed to realize that he sounded terribly pessimistic, even too stern, so Esmail offered some parting encouragement to his visitor. ‘We’ve got to provoke initiative, provoke creativity, provoke the science. You’ve really got to do it. At the end of the day you’ll open up some possibilities. You’ll do it. You’ll find a way.’ ‘That’s the hope,’ Seth said. Esmail agreed. ‘That’s the goal.’”

Page 56, The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow 

 

The Black Belt:  Alabama's Third World

Alabama's black belt, originally named so because of the color of the soil, is currently the poorest region of our state. In order to solve hunger, we have to understand not only the history behind impoverished communities (i.e. what started the intergenerational cycle of poverty), we also have to understand their current conditions. The following case study walks you through both and lets you understand a bit more about poverty in our own state.

Watch the following videos on Alabama's Black Belt by Dr. Joe Sumners

Video:  The Black Belt

Video:  Evolution Economics

Photo Gallery

Powerpoint Presentation

If you are interested in learning more about this region, I recommend watching this PBS series. Links to an external site.